2. Corrections outside of an enquiry

HMRC's power to correct personal tax return

 

"(1)     An officer of the Board may amend a return under section 8 or 8A of this Act so as to correct—

(a)     obvious errors or omissions in the return (whether errors of principle, arithmetical mistakes or otherwise), and

(b)     anything else in the return that the officer has reason to believe is incorrect in the light of information available to the officer.

(2)     A correction under this section is made by notice to the person whose return it is." (TMA 1970, s.9ZB(1) - (2))

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Time limit: 9 months of delivery of return

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"(3)     No such correction may be made more than nine months after—

(a)     the day on which the return was delivered, or

(b)     if the correction is required in consequence of an amendment of the return under section 9ZA of this Act, the day on which that amendment was made." (TMA 1970, s.9ZB(3))

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Power is to correct obvious error and omissions

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“Absent a Notice of Enquiry, the Revenue has restricted powers to amend a self-assessment, for example, only to correct obvious errors or omissions pursuant to s 9ZB(1) or s 12ABB(1).” (HMRC v. Tower MCashback LLP 1 [2010] EWCA Civ 32, §19).

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Power of correction extends to errors of principle

 

“Where a taxpayer makes a claim for relief in a tax return form which is on its face relevant to the year of assessment (as, for example, when he claims employment loss relief in year 2) or where the taxpayer chooses under section 9(1) of TMA to calculate the amount of tax that he is due to pay, and allows for the relief in his calculation, the Revenue, if it disagrees, will have the option of correcting the return under section 9ZB of TMA, which extends to errors of principle. If the taxpayer rejects the correction (under section 9ZB(4)), that correction has no effect.” (HMRC v. Cotter [2013] UKSC 69, §34).